There are many occasions where a consumer may want to be notified when his credit card or the like is used. For example, he may want to know when his credit card account number has been used to make a purchase. Some (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,337) have suggested sending a notification transmission to a cardholder to allow the cardholder to approve or deny a transaction after receiving the notification transmission.
However, in some instances, it may be more appropriate for someone other than the cardholder to approve of the transaction. As will be discussed below, allowing a person other than the cardholder to approve of the transaction can increase security and can help control expenses in some instances.
Embodiments of the invention address these and other problems, individually and collectively.